One of Nairobi’s, well just at glance, coolest but deadliest areas to live in is Lucky Summer Estate. The estate is curled up in Ruaraka Constituency, off the Thika Superhighway, just beside the Kasarani Sports Stadium.
Lucky Summer, i don’t know what is LUCKY there, but it’s an area where gangsters can chase you in broad daylight brandishing knives, clubs and guns.
Gunshorts are daily lullabies with thugs and cops putting their toys on real practical tests. The Estate is surrounded by major slums like Dandora, Ngomongo, Korogocho and Babadogo. There is speculation that some of the criminals cross to Lucky Summer from the slums neighbouring the estate.
Some, if not almost all, residents have suffered at the hands of these merciless gangs, but lived to tell the story after surviving deep cuts or sustained injuries inflicted by the machete-wielding criminals that have homemade guns and other deadly weapons.
A survey sanctioned by the government and carried out by the Security Research and Information Centre in 2012 and launched by then Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo found that the most notorious places in Nairobi are parts of the Kayole, Kibera, Lunga Lunga slums, Jericho and Soweto, because robberies take place in those areas at any time of the day.
In Makadara, Mukuru kwa Reuben slums were mapped out because the area becomes a trade centre for firearms after dusk.
Kariokor and Mlango Kubwa in Starehe Division were identified as places where gangsters who need guns can easily hire them at any time of the day or night.
Kongo section of Dagoretti Division was also found to be awash with illicit firearms for hire, the report indicated.
Just last month, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) gunned down two gangsters in the afternoon after receiving a distress call from locals who had been attacked at a supermarket in the area and robbed of valuables. The two were killed in a shoot-out while the third escaped on foot. A pistol with three rounds ammunition and mobile phones were recovered.
“The two hail from Dandora slums and they seem to be part of the few thugs who are giving Lucky Summer locals sleepless nights,” a senior police officer privy to the matter said.
Mr Dennis Kamau recently told local media how he had boarded a motorbike at Safari Park Hotel (at around 1 pm) and was headed to Lucky Summer estate, only to learn later that the rider was a criminal.
“A few moments later, the rider stopped near a group of men who stole everything I had. To make matters worse, they even took my jacket and shirt. I went home bare-chested,” recalled Mr Kamau.
Some victims have been beaten for not co-operating as the merciless gangs steal from them. Police, who have been conducting frequent night patrols in the estate, have also become casualties of the armed robbers.
In 2013, for instance, Constable Manasses Mwendia and his colleagues, Constable Robert Kerina and Constable Salad Aden, were on night duty in Lucky Summer around 11 pm when they stopped three suspicious-looking men. One of the suspects immediately opened fire and shot Constable Mwendia in the forehead, killing him instantly.
An officer shot one of the suspects and recovered a Tokarev pistol, serial number EP12828, with an empty magazine.
In April last year, a resident, Mr Charles Ouma, came face to face with a gang that stabbed him five times then strangled and left him unconscious because he, according to them, was walking without money. Fortunately, he got help from a good Samaritan who rushed him to St Francis Hospital.
And in March 2018, an armed gang commandeered a matatu, attacked passengers and stole their valuables at the Lucky Summer bus stop.
Well, there is one saying in the Area “If you know the duck, you know the dirt.” The area has been left for a while and now goons have taken over. Landlords face tougher times just as their tenants. Where is the Police? Where is NIS? Where is DCI?
